Gaming machines that provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. These gaming machines generally require a player to place a wager to activate a play of the primary game. For many of these gaming machines, any award provided to a player for a wagered-on play of a primary game is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or a winning symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Winning symbols or winning symbol combinations that are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
For such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager placed on the primary game by the player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one cent, nickel, dime, quarter, or dollar) up to a maximum quantity of credits, such as five credits. This wager may be placed by the player a single time or multiple times in a single play of the primary game. For instance, gaming machine configured to operate a slot game may have one or more paylines, and the gaming machine may enable a player to place a wager on each payline for a single play of the slot game. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as one configured to operate a slot game, may enable players to place wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of the primary game ranging, for example, from one credit up to 125 credits (e.g., 5 credits on each of twenty-five separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, where players can place wagers of one or more credits on each hand, and where multiple hands can be played simultaneously. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that different players play at substantially different wagering amounts or levels and at substantially different rates of play.
Various slot games include a plurality of reels, at least one of which includes a plurality of wild symbols positioned adjacent to one another on the reel to form a stack or stacks of wild symbols on the reel. During play, the reels are spun and one or more of the wild symbols of the stack or stacks of wild symbols may be generated and displayed as a result of the spin of the reels. That is, for a spin of the reels, one or more wild symbols may or may not be generated and displayed. The fact that the wild symbols are not guaranteed to be generated for each spin of the reels may frustrate players, especially those who enjoy large amounts of action and a high hit frequency while playing slot games. Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide new wagering games that enable players to guarantee that one or more wild symbols will be generated during game play.